The New Ion Board
The new Ion Board from Smart Parts is a tournament level, upgrade circuit board with many new features. It gives you full operational control and a wider range of adjustment of your paintball marker. We have included a fully adjustable Rebound and NXL modes, a D-bounce adjustment, Bolt Stick Adjustment (BSA, to eliminate any first shot drop problems), kick in rate adjustment, sustaining rate adjustment, # of Shots to Kick In, and a short cut key for ROF. Also you will notice the addition of a new speaker to make the on/off and board-mode-adjustments more user-friendly as well as more identifiable.

Installation: Follow your Ion Owners Manual for instructions on removal of stock board and installation of the new board. It has been designed to fit in your Ion with no modifications. You must use the banjo fittings from your stock board assembly on the new upgrade board.

Operating Instructions:
1. After pressing and holding the on/off button for two seconds the board will chirp and turn on in its vision state of firing mode.
2. The on/off button can be used to switch back and forth from base mode to vision mode pressing the button quickly and observing the change in light pattern from a steady blink to an interrupted blinking light sequence.
3. You must unscrew rubber grip screws and open up your grip to access the mode button. By pressing this mode button (the button below the on/off button) once, the board will enter into the adjustment mode. The first thing you will see is a solid yellow light indicating you are in “Dwell Adjustment”. As you continue pressing the mode button, you will cycle through the modes which are each defined by a specific color and flash sequence (see chart A below).

Adjustment Color Codes (Chart A)

Modes Light Color Mode Button On/Off Button Range

Dwell Solid Yellow Down Up 1 to 89
ROF(Rate of Fire) Solid Red Up Down 1 to 91
Firing Modes Single Blink Yellow Down Up 1 to 4
Debounce Single Blink Red Down Up 1 to 25
BSA (bolt stick adjust) Double Blink Yellow Down Up 1 to 26
Kick In Rate Adjust Double Blink Red Down Up 3sps-10sps
Sustain Rate Adjust Fast Blink Yellow Down Up 3sps-10sps
# Of Shots to Enter Firing Mode Fast Blink Red Down Up 3 pulls-10 pulls
Short Cut Key * Yellow and Red Both Pressed Both
Pressed N/A

*Short Cut Key- When both buttons are depressed for 1 second, the red and yellow lights will stay on to identify that your fire rate has been set to 14.7 sps (shots per second)

4. While in any of these categories if you wait 4 seconds the speaker will chirp to identify what that range is set too. For example if it was in the dwell setting mode and the dwell was set to 30, after 4 seconds the speaker would chirp 30 times.
5. If you decide to leave the adjustment table without making any changes, simply pull and release the trigger one time, and the board will go back into its base (non vision) firing mode. ***Note that if there is air charged in the gun, it will not be able to fire while in adjustment mode. However, be careful because as soon as you release the trigger, you will be able to fire the gun***
6. If you decide to change one of the settings, while the board is in any of the categories listed above, pull and hold the trigger for 3 seconds, in which case the speaker will chirp 5 times (to let you know that you can make adjustments), and then while the trigger is still being held you can adjust a setting by pressing the mode button to adjust down or the on/off button to adjust up. While adjusting, the speaker will still make a high pitch chirp for each adjustment up and a low pitch chirp for each adjustment down.
7. As long as you hold the trigger, you can adjust the setting up or down. Once you have reached your desired setting, releasing the trigger will put the board back into base fire mode and save your new setting. The board will chirp a very fast beep when it can’t go any higher or lower in the adjustment mode.
8. To turn your marker off, simply press and hold on/off button until the board chirps (approximately 2 seconds) and the light ceases to blink.
Mode Descriptions:

• Dwell- This adjusts how long the bolt stays forward on each firing cycle. Too low of a dwell will not allow the marker to fire and if the dwell is set too high you will loose a lot of gas efficiency. Refer to your Ion manual on how to properly set your dwell.
• Rate of Fire (ROF) - This can also be labeled pause time because with every adjustment, you are increasing or decreasing the pause time between each shot. This is why this mode is the only mode where you press the “down” mode button to increase the setting. Adjusting up (increasing the pause between shots) will turn your ROF down and adjusting down (decreasing the pause between shots) will increase ROF.
• Firing Mode – There are 4 different modes that you can cycle through while in the Firing Mode adjustment stage. Here are the different modes and their descriptions:
 Semi-Auto- This mode is strictly semi-auto only. The kick in rate and sustain rate are not applicable in this mode. This mode would be the ideal setting if playing in the NPPL Super 7 or any other tournament which doesn’t allow any ramping software. NPPL IDEAL SETTING: Debounce-as low as you can get it without the gun shooting itself from the bounce of it firing. If you can pull the trigger slowly and if the gun kicks, causing it to fire more than one ball it, might be deemed illegal. ROF- 20/maxed
• Rebound- In this mode, when you pull the trigger a set amount of times, the gun will “kick in” into assisted-type of firing as long as you continue to pull the trigger a set amount of times per second. This is where you can use the kick in rate and the sustain rate. This is the best mode for the Millennium Series. MILLENNIUM SERIES IDEAL SETTING: Kick In Rate- 8, Sustain Rate- 8, ROF- 14.7
• NXL Full-Auto- The name is just what it suggests, it is full auto after you pull the trigger the set amount of times and then continue to hold the trigger. If you happen to release the trigger, you have just under one second to pull it again before you would have to pull it the set amount of times again. NXL IDEAL SETTING: Kick In Rate- 3, Sustain Rate- 1, ROF-14.7
• Tournament Rebound- This mode is best used in PSP’s X-ball divisional play. The rules are similar to the NXL except that you have to continue to pull the trigger at least 1 pull a second at all times. They do not allow complete full auto. This mode can be fully adjusted to comply with any league that allows ramping such as the PSP and the Millennium. TOURNAMENT REBOUND IDEAL SETTING: PSP: Kick In Rate- 3, Sustain Rate- 1, ROF- 14.7. Millennium: Kick In Rate- 8, Sustain Rate- 8, ROF- Check current Millennium Series rules.
• Debounce – This setting is best used with the normal semi-auto mode. The lower you set the debounce, the gun will feel like it shoots a lot smoother and easier. You have to be careful of rules and regulations because if you take the debounce too low, and you pull the trigger slowly, the kick of the gun might make it shoot more than one time. In many leagues and tournaments, that would be an illegal gun. Also, if you drop the debounce down all the way to 1, it will be in full auto which is not legal at many fields and tournaments.
• BSA (Bolt Stick Adjustment) - This mode is to help compensate for any first shot drop (when a guns first shot is very low in velocity compared to the shots following the first one) that you might be experiencing. After the gun sits for a period of time, the board will increase the dwell setting (amount depends on your current BSA setting) to alleviate any first shot drop. If you do not experience any, then, obviously you would be at the lowest setting within the BSA to avoid any hot gun penalties.
• Kick In Rate- This refers to the shots per second you must reach by pulling the trigger before the board will “kick in” to NXL Full Auto or Tournament Rebound. The higher the setting, the harder it will be to kick into either of the modes. The lower the setting, the easier it will be to kick in.
• Sustain Rate- This refers to the shots per second you must sustain by pulling the trigger to keep the board “kicked in” to NXL Full Auto or Tournament Rebound. The higher the setting, the faster you will have to pull the trigger to sustain the NXL Full Auto or the Tournament Rebound. The lower the setting, the slower you will have to pull the trigger to sustain the NXL Full Auto or the Tournament Rebound.
• # of Shots to enter Fire Mode- This mode adjusts how many shots are needed to be pulled in order for it to kick in to full auto or rebound modes. You can adjust it from 1 to 10 pulls to kick it in. This means that if it is set to 10, no matter what, you have to pull the trigger 10 times before it will ever kick in to its mode.
• Short Cut Key- This is actually not a mode but a handy feature on the new board. If you had been playing in different tournament series or messing around at your local field, and you had adjusted your rate of fire to something higher than the tournament legal 15 balls per second, all you have to do is hold the mode and on/off button together for one second, the board will chirp and both lights will stay on. This will put your rate of fire back to 14.7 balls per second. This can be convenient if you are in a hurry and/or don’t have the device handy that tells you your rate of fire. No one wants a major penalty right?

Product Availability

The Smart Parts Blackheart Ion Board is newer, so it should be commonly available, both new and used.

the board was a great purchase at only 99.00 form punisherspb.com. The blackheart is the cheap way to get an ion with many tournament firing modes commonly used, without spending extra money for modes that most players don't ever use. the price point is the cheapest in its market but there are better performing ion boards out there seeing as how the board is capped at 20 bps. The board improves on the ion stock eye logic, and is extremely easy to install and tune the dwell,bsa, and trigger sensitivity

Conclusion:

This product is great for an ion owner just looking for more modes and that is satisfied with 20 bps as a cap.If you only use psp ramp 90% of the time this is the board for you to put in your ion, it increases the cycle rate and modes to choose form without spending the cash for a virtue, ape,tadao or a t-board

Easy to programe
Shortcut to 15bps
Higher ROF(not by much though)
Speaker

Weaknesses:

ROF is capped at 20 (but if you play tournements you only need 15bps)

Review:

It comes with a speaker and a blue light you can actually see in the sun light. It is easy to programe (easier than stock board) and comes with a extra 3bps ontop of the stock board 17bps to make it 20bps. The shortcut key is alot of help to set the board to 15bps for tourney's. It comes with all the modes you need to play the tournements.

Picked this up as a replacement for my stock board after it mysteriously died. The box was plain, but the packaging surprised me. They had just stuck it in the box. No padding, nothing. However, the board itself was positivly better made than the stock board. I just think they shoulda packaged it better. Dropped it in, and tweaked my dwell down to about 25. Out of the box, it comes preset to the maximum dwell available. I dropped a few shots through the chronograph at the store I bought it at, made sure it was working, and took it home to do more playing.
Well, the first thing I had to get out of the way is that the switch is positioned slightly differently....had to reset my trigger. Oh well, not really a problem with the board.
And then I began to tinker. I discovered the debounce setting and dropped it all the way down to 3. Any lower, and my gun gun began to bounce, so I left it at 3 and began ripping away. And that's when the first big difference hit me. In semi, I wasn't skipping shots, the trigger wasn't failing to detect my pulls, the trigger was so light and crisp it was an amazing difference. The board was set to 14.7 BPS, and while I probably wasn't hitting that, I can say I was definatly shooting with less gaps and faster speed than I was before in semi.
Two minor wishes:
#1....Did anyone else not get a warrenty card? Does anyone have any clue how long the warrenty is good for?
#2. A dryfire mode woulda been nice, but by no means necessary.

I should note for all the cheaters out there, there are no gangsta modes, breakout settings, or anything else. It's all legal and legit, although you could set the debounce too low if you're not careful.

Conclusion:

Made much more of a difference than I'd ever thought possible. Very impressed and very well constructed. Would reccomned, but there may be better choices now that I didn't have an opportunity to test. If you're an honest player that wants an upgraded board that directly improves your gun's performance, but don't want a million bells and whistles, I can reccomend this one.
8/10 due to my desire for better packaging, a warrenty card, and the fact another mode or two mighta been nice, but overall, I'd rather have a warrenty card.

The Smart Parts Blackheart Board is a very good upgrade. Its ROF is capped at 20 but i don't see why you would need to shoot any faster than that because no tournament series allows you to do so. there are many things you can change on this board to customize it the way you want to and make it your own. you can adjust the ROF (which actually isn't what you think) The dwell, the bolt stick, and a whole lot more. How you have go about changing all of these things is quite difficult seeing how you can only use 2 buttons and a trigger and its almost impossible to memorize. that's why i keep a copy of the manual with me all the time. but other than that i don't really see any weaknesses or anything its a great board way better than the stock board(duh). it makes your ion shoot just as good as any other tournament grade gun.

Conclusion:

Buy it. Take a copy of the manual with you when you go play just in case. Then mow some faces.

i got this board to replace my stock board after it fired out or something like that. When i first put this in i looked at the manual on how to adjust your settings and for me it took a while on how to figure it out but i did not see that you had to hold the trigger down. once i got to my preferred settings i gased it up and shot it and i was easy to get to 17 on semi. One of the main reasons why i like this is that you can set your bps at 14.7 to make it tournament leagal which is nice. The blue instead of red light is easy to see and it chirps when you turn on/off the marker or eyes. The eyes that it came with were nice until the white plug in just fell off but the stock eyes will work with it to. i bought this and got more than i exspected.

Conclusion:

If you play in tournaments i would by this cause it is cheaper than the virtue and w/ the bps being capped it doesn't matter but if you are a rec baller i would by the virtue cuz it is more fun to play with.

When i first bought my ion, i was hesitant to buy a new board for my gun, because i didnt think 100 dollar board could improve the performance that much. When i accidentaly pinched the eye wire in my gun, i was forced to get a new one. Instead of buyin a new one, I bought a blackheart board which included a new eye cable and new eyes. I bought it in the summer of 2006, and to this day i have not chopped a paintball.
It only took me about an hour to get the settings perfect to where i like them.

Conclusion:

If you still have your stock ion board, spend the 100 bucks and buy a blackheart.

well the black heart board is amazing. some people say it was confusing to watch me do it but it wasn't for me. it works better if your gun is upgraded QEV reg and stuff like that i noticed. i like the different modes and stuff even though i play woodsball and dont use the like break ones much unless i play ont he tini field.

I have been useing this board for about a month now and so far it is the best ever. It is very user friendly whan it comes to programing. The speaker is a very nice thing to have, especially because it chirps every 5 seconds when your battery is low. Having the solinoid nickel plated is nice for the added durability. It also come with a nice eyes. I would recomend piaring this bosrd with a good QEV, at least in my experiece it helped alot. I guess it would be kinda nice to have more firing modes, but it does just fine without.

Conclusion:

this board is an awsome upgrade and I would recomend it to any one who has a SP gun. Its FAST!!!

I got a new board cause i broke the nipple on the stock solenoid trying to change out the hose with the new one that came with the NDZ QEV. I heard that with the VP scythe trigger you need to tweak it a little but i didnt know what till i installed it. you have to bend the switch arm cause it doesnt engage the switch fully pulled, but that was no problem (needle nose and a little patience).

Once i got it up and running, i quickly got it set at my preferred settings(comes with a decent chart for setting up) and took out for use. There wasnt much of a difference, with the exception of a higer rate of fire and kick in rate adjustments. Its just nice to set it for when you want the firing modes to kick in. Also, it has the quick switch for setting whatever mode you are in to 14.7 bps for tournament play so you dont have to figure out where you are at if you dont remember.

Conclusion:

Decent board, but after using my friends ion with the t-board, i wish i would have waited for that--its cheaper and more modes and i wouldnt have to tweak for the trigger(i dont think). Good upgrade though, but personally the stock board is fine. You dont really need anything faster than 15bps due to tournament rules.

This board came with my ion when i bought it, so i have only tested the stock board. Also my friends ion has the virtue board so i have shot that a few times.

First impressions
Speaker- this is the first thing i noticed, it really makes working with this alot easier, you know if you actually have the button pushed down. It also lets you know if you accidently hit the eyes off.

Speed - This thing can go pretty freakin fast with ramping and nxl full auto, though compared to stock its not that big of a difference, and in semi i can notice the difference between shooting a virtued ion and a blackhearted.

Programming - When i first went through adjusting dwell and rof, it confused the crap out of me, you need to go online and figure out what your settings will give you when trying to put a cap on you board. And while you have the shortcut button, if you have a qev or new bolt then the shortcut will just mess up your settings with the dwell and give you bad efficiency.

Modes- Not very many to choose from, semi, 3 round burst, nxl full auto, and ramping. Full auto and ramping you can adjust the settings on, though for a board that costs this much i would expect more.

After using it for a while
Speed- while still happy with ramping and nxl, with semi it's like theres a cap on it, even though its rof is 0, don't know why, but my friends virtued ion doesn't have it.

Speaker- I still love it, and when i switch to ions without the blackheart i just can't stand it, definately a great idea.

Programming - after using it for a while programming isn't that bad, but still not as easy as i would like.

Modes- Definately kinda sucks with this board, i have realized how little variety there is with this. SP could definately have put more in this.

Conclusion:

Good board, the speaker is a big hit with me. If you have the money, go with the lucky or virtue, but it is a good board.